just got a replacement prs-650 after two dead prs-600's. When i plug in the 650, it bounces between "charging battery" and "charging stopped". Sometimes messing with the usb cable alters things a bit it seems, but other times not. eventually it seems to settle down into the "charging battery" mode, at which point i can use reader library (reader library crashes if i run it during the vascillating period). i'll try another cable when i can get my hands on one. but in the meantime, anyone else have similar problems?

@igorsk: plugged into USB port of computer.
@bbriand: haven't yet tried a different cable - that's the first thing to try. I kinda doubt it'll help though, since once the connection stabilizes, moving the cable around doesn't interrupt it. Haven't tried a different computer yet either - good idea.

I installed all the software using my prs-600. do i need to reinstall using the mounted prs-650 drive, or should everything be ok as is?

just got a replacement prs-650 after two dead prs-600's. When i plug in the 650, it bounces between "charging battery" and "charging stopped". Sometimes messing with the usb cable alters things a bit it seems, but other times not. eventually it seems to settle down into the "charging battery" mode, at which point i can use reader library (reader library crashes if i run it during the vascillating period). i'll try another cable when i can get my hands on one. but in the meantime, anyone else have similar problems?

thanks in advance...

allie

win 7 pro x64
prs-650

This is normal. It's just the initialisation process for charging the battery when plugging in a USB cable connected to a computer.

Hmmm, I had a phone that did this. It was a Palm Treo and whenever I tried to sync it with my computer, the USB connection would keep dropping. I tried a new cable and still had problems. My phone was over a year old when I started having this problem so I couldn't get it replaced. I had to hold the cable JUST SO the entire time I synced it, or the connection would drop (and it often did anyway). I think there was a problem with the pins inside the port on the phone. If the Reader is new, I would get it replaced.

@MaxLV: really? it seems to go on for a full couple minutes sometimes. Do other people notice the same behavior?

Yes I've found the same thing on a Win7(32) system _without_ Sony library installed. I assumed it was a cable fault until I noticed that on an XP system using the same cable but with Sony library installed it instantly goes straight to "Charging Battery" never 'oscillating' as you put it.

So I guess it must be a handshaking issue of some sort - just ever so slightly irritating!

I do question the wisdom of using the micro USB port for charging, the longevity of it must be questionable over the round plug on the 505.

It seems to be related to the fact that Win7 keeps accessing the device even when it has no ligitimate reason to do so.

If you hook up a generic USB drive that has an access indicator LED you will see it flashing at random times after you mount the drive.

The classic reason given for this is that it is happening because the drive is being accessed by background services like system restore, indexing, and windows defender, but the strange thing is, the scanning seems to continue even after these services are disabled.

Sometimes this hidden scanning service can interfere with your ability to eject the drive, so I made a concerted effort to figure out what it was one day, but even after eliminating all the legitimate background services above, it is still happening.